INQUIRY INTO

SPORTSGROUND MANAGEMENT IN NSW

Submission is made by:-

Bob Somerville

§  President Hornsby Ku-ring-gai and Hills District Cricket Association (HKHDCA).

§  President Hornsby Shire Council Sports Council

Contact details. (author requests that contact details are not made public)

Email:-

Phone:- 0418169717

Snail mail:- PO Box 573, Hornsby 1630

NARRATIVE.

I thank the committee for taking the time to consider a matter which is very important to communities and especially to the local government areas (LGA) of Ku-ring-gai, Hornsby and Baulkam Hills. As some members of your committee have no doubt heard me say, we are in the business of youth service. Sporting groups often provide over 90% of youth service in the community. We, that is all of the sporting community are often the only stable group in a child’s life. We together with school teachers provide a great deal of support for children from troubled domestic situations. A sporting team is often the only form of nuclear family a child will know.

There are three matters which I would like the committee to consider. Each of them is important and they have practical solutions which, if implemented will have a great benefit to the community.

1.  PLANNING PROCESSES FOR USE OF SCHOOL GROUNDS.

If we accept that using school grounds for community sport is a good idea, we can move on to one of the major bits of red tape. HKHDCA has developed over a dozen school grounds both public and private. However it transpires that under the Local Government act, a school ground can only be used for school purposes. To use a school ground for community purposes requires at the very least a development application and more likely a change of zoning. Many associations skate around the edge of this by setting up a “school team” which allows the ground to be used without reference to a Council. Our recommendation is that clubs and associations should not be required to pay Councils for what we regard as a piece of paper. We are already paying for the infrastructure and the maintenance.

2.  IMPACT OF TRAINING LIGHTS

For over a decade, there has been a steady flow of capital to put training lights onto ovals for winter training. The benefits of these are not in dispute. What is a problem is that each Council in signing off applications for funding indicates that they have the funds to maintain the lights. In this very narrow definition, they are correct. What they do not have is the funds to maintain the grounds from the increased wear and tear. Any person who owns a lawn mower can tell you that grass grows in summer season. Increasing the wear in a season when grass growth is minimal can have serious consequences on the viability of the ground. The damage increases often exponentially and training lights often give an increase in usage of 25 hours a week. Sate Government and Federal Government make capital available but there is no obvious means of obtaining recurring funding for the increased maintenance required as a result of installing training lights. We ask the committee to consider this point very carefully.

3.  WATERING OF FIELDS

Expanding on a theme of grass growing in summer, the combination of weather patterns that we all fear is a dry summer followed by a wet winter. It has been demonstrated that the sustainability of winter playing fields depends to a large extent on the growth of grass in summer. If grass growth is weak and more particularly if root growth is shallow, one or two wet days in winter can tear the structure apart making the field almost unusable if it dries out again. Whilst many of our grounds have irrigation systems, current water restrictions preclude their use using reticulated water. As a result, what grass growth there is is often shallow because the main moisture source is dew and this does not soak into the soil. Root growth which is shallow results in poor soil structure. If we assume that current restrictions will continue, two alternatives are

·  water harvesting which requires quite large investment, currently covered by Federal grants in some cases. Many of the fields however have little opportunity to put in water harvesting and

·  the use of treated water from local treatment works. Many of our fields have header tanks for irrigation systems which exceed the typical capacity of a tanker (bulk tankers are between 20 and 25 thousand litres) which means that tankers could transport treated water to the fields for subsequent irrigation. If this were done, it would greatly improve the fields for winter usage even if it makes them less so in summer because of grass growth. The issue is how do we pay for it? In the Hornsby area most of this treated water is poured into Berowra Creek. Using it to improve the playing fields where a lot of it will evaporate and any flow will be spread across four catchments instead of one, has to have advantages beyond the narrow scope of sporting fields.

CONCLUSION

This submission does not seek to address all of the issues that face us. It merely addresses these three issues which have identifiable solutions.

Bob Somerville